Going on a road trip soon? Check out these 40+ easy and kid-friendly road trip snacks! Ideas from granola bars, nut balls, and snack mixes. Plus a recap of my awesome trip to Arizona in a brand-new Mitsubishi Outlander! (I was provided car and other travel accomodations for this post. All opinions are my own.)
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I had the privilege to drive this super cute car below to Arizona to go to the SoFabU On The Road Conference!
I was initially supposed to drive there with my blogging bud, Kristin (Yellow Bliss Road) but she unfortunately got the stomach flu the night before we were supposed to leave for the conference. 🙁 I was hesitant to go by myself but then thought, (being a mom of four) alone doesn’t happen often, right?! So I decided I couldn’t not go!
So let me get to all the fun details of my trip. First of all, the car. I was really excited when I found out that I got to drive a Mitsubishi car. Mitsubishi is known to have quality cars for great prices. They drive almost like a race car, the way they’re lower to the ground and quickly maneuver. They’re easy to turn and navigate, too.
I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this cute Mitsubishi Outlander! I would honestly buy this car. Plain and simple.
I love that it has a 3rd row that easily pops up and down. I love that it drives like a pro and can turn on a dime. I love the touch screen radio and navigation. I love that this car has the ability to be a “mom car” but is totally sporty too.
I put the sunroof down and zipped through the desert terrain with the Sirius XM radio up as loud as I wanted (no kids, remember?!). Let’s just say 5 1/2 hours went by fast. Pretty much it was a dream drive. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I didn’t even need to fill the gas tank on my drive!
I had to stop a few times just to take some fun pictures of my little red car. I made a pit stop at the Cabazon Outlets, because, duh. Outlets. 😉 And of course the windmills, which make a pretty rad backdrop. Driving through the desert, I felt like a superstar. Such a fun car to drive! I made it to Arizona in record time.
After a refreshing night in my hotel room, I woke up ready for the SoFabU On the Road Conference! One of the things I loved about this conference was how intimate it was. There were probably only 30 bloggers there, which made it a comfortable setting. I’ve been to other conferences that have so many people that it’s overwhelming.
I was able to meet and hang out with Rachael from Eazy Peazy Mealz. LOVE her. She is seriously the sweetest! I really enjoyed hearing from Aliza Sherman, who taught a class about Social Media Strategy and Storytelling. We got to hear from a couple of cool brands and bloggers about the best ways to work together. There was also a peer review session, where we had a fellow blogger look over one or more of our posts and they could tell us what we could do to improve.
But overall, my favorite class of the day was taught by a professional food stylist (Kim Krejca) and professional food photographer (Rick Gayle). Chef Steven Fowler cooked an amazing Southwestern menu and Kim and Rick worked together to photograph each course, going through each step to teach us. It was absolutely incredible!
There are so many secrets I learned from them about styling and photography. I put some of their tips to use as soon as I got home. Rachael and I were lucky enough to stay after the conference and chat with them one on one. They looked at my pictures here on my blog and gave me some great constructive criticism. I feel so lucky that I was able to meet them and learn so much from them.
Overall, I think the SoFabU OTR Conference was a smashing success. I was sad to leave and have to give back my car but I had such a great experience.
Be sure to check out all of Mitsubishi’s fabulous cars and then stop by the SoFabU website to see where they’re heading next and if they’ll be visiting your area soon!
Just for fun, I thought it would be great to roundup recipes from some of my blogger friends of easy road trip snacks. I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for great snacks to take on the road. And these arent’ just road trip snacks, they’re snacks you can make anytime! Thanks for reading – see you Friday!
Thanks for including me Jen! What a fun trip!
I’m going to need all these delicious ideas because I’m taking my little ones on an oveseas trip in July… WELP!
Nice ride!!! Looks like you were riding in style! Oh, and I love these road trip snack ideas. Part of what I love about road trips is the snacking 🙂
I was totally following your little trip on Instagram. LOVE the car! So fun you got to try it out for your little conference adventure. Jealous! SoFabU OTR looks like it was so much fun!
Also you are adorable. 🙂
Jen, it looks like you had such a fantastic time! I’m hoping to attend the NYC SoFab event this summer. Cheers!
That looks like a fun trip! The car is so pretty too. I probably passed you on the road but I just had to go to Disneyland. 🙂 Wish I had some of those snacks with me.
What a fun trip…kidless?! I wouldn’t even know what to do with myself! Glad you had fun and got to learn so many new things! =)
Looks like it was a fun conference, and a super fun trip too! 5 hours in the car alone as a mom actually sounds great too! Ah, the peace and quiet! So cool that you didn’t even have to gas up!
I LOVE this collection, Jen! So much goodness!!!
Ahh girl! You are the sweetest thing ever. I am so glad we met! Wish we lived closer. And I love Cabazon! My sister used to live in Redlands, so whenever I would visit we would hit up those outlets! You definitely had to stop. No doubt.
Your trip looks so fun, Jen! I wish I could have ridden in that sweet car with you. I didn’t know it had a third row. I should have looked at that instead of my Mazda maybe! Thanks so much for including my snack mix in your fun roundup. xo